Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Swedish Meatball Recipe – Swedish meatballs make a delicious dish with tender meatballs served in a rich, creamy sauce over noodles or mashed potatoes! A favorite family recipe made from scratch!

Growing up, whenever Mama would make her Swedish meatballs, I couldn’t wait until time for supper. I’d stand as close by her side as she’d let me as she cooked, rising up on my tip toes to be able to see into the pots and pans the whole time. Finally, when it was time for supper, it always tasted even better than I remembered.

Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Her recipe is made from scratch using simple ingredients, a little time, and a whole lot of love. Served over your favorite wide or twirl noodles, this hearty recipe with this scrumptious Swedish meatball sauce is perfect for a weeknight meal or even a special occasion!

How to Make Swedish Meatballs

To make the meatballs, mix all the ingredients for the meatballs and set aside.

Using a scoop or spoon, form meatballs from the ground beef mixture. Heat a skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Lightly coat the bottom of the skillet with a drizzle of enough olive oil to prevent meatballs from sticking.

Drop the meatballs into the heated skillet, and turn occasionally to make sure that all sides of the meatball have browned. This should take about 7 to 10 minutes.

Remove the meatballs from the skillet or pan and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

To make the sauce, reduce the heat on the skillet or pan to medium-low heat. Melt the butter and whisk in flour until it turns golden brown.

Then slowly whisk in the beef broth and cook until thickened. Then add in milk or cream, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and salt.

Continue to stir the sauce until all ingredients are well-combined.

Add the cooked meatballs back into the skillet, turning to coat them well with the rich, delicious sauce. Add fresh parsley, if desired.

How to Serve with Swedish Meatballs

We always love our Swedish Meatballs served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes. When we hosted a Rotary student from Sweden a few years ago, she made sure that we served it with a bit of Lingonberry Jam that she’d brought with her from home. Talk about delicious!

Here’s Mama’s Swedish Meatballs recipe. I think you’ll love it.

Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Swedish Meatball Recipe - Swedish meatballs make a delicious dish with tender meatballs served in a rich, creamy sauce over noodles or mashed potatoes! A favorite family recipe made from scratch!

Instructions

For the meatballs:

Mix together all ingredients for the meatballs. Set aside.

Using a tablespoon scoop or spoon, form meatballs from the ground beef mixture. Heat 12-inch skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Drizzle in enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the skillet to prevent meatballs from sticking. Drop formed meatballs into the heated skillet, turning occasionally to ensure that all sides of the meatball have been browned, about 7-10 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the skillet or saute pan and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

For the sauce:

Reduce the heat on the skillet or saute pan to medium-low heat. Melt butter and whisk in flour until it has turned golden brown. Slowly whisk in beef broth and cook until thickened, then add in milk or cream, worcestershire sauce, pepper, and salt. Continue to stir until well-combined. Add meatballs back into the skillet, turning to coat well. Add fresh parsley, if using.

Hi! I’d been meaning to try this recipe for ages, finally got around to trying it tonight.
I’m not a big cook (love to eat, but more of a baker), so maybe this is just lack of experience, but I had a really hard time with the meatballs falling apart as I was turning them while cooking.
I’ve made meatballs one other time and didn’t have this problem, so I’m just wondering if you have any tips? I followed you recipe exactly.
Thanks!

I would add an egg to help bind them. Also, I have gone to oven baking my meatballs for any recipe. I line a baking sheet with foil, spray it with a little Pam, make 1 and a half inch meatballs and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. And just toss the foil so no clean up.

Hi Joe,
You will brown all sides of the meatballs before you make the sauce. They should be thoroughly cooked before you put them in the sauce. When they go in the sauce, you will just turn them to make sure they are all well covered and then remove from heat. I hope you enjoy them – Thanks!

What you are making are not Swedish Meatballs. If you check on line you will see that almost all recipes for Swedish Meatballs have ground pork and ground beef and also most importantly it always has allspice, nutmeg and ginger or a combination of them. What you have given us is a recipe for meatballs, not Swedish. The spice is what makes them distinctive. I have been making my grandmother’s recipe for over 50 years. Please try one of the recipes with allspice and you will see how good they can be.

She was merely pointing out the truth. No one should take it personally. It really wouldn’t be a Swedish meatball if it doesn’t have the all spice and nutmeg. Just like it wouldn’t be an Italian meatball without specific ingredients like Parmesan and parsley. A cheeseburger wouldn’t be a cheeseburger without cheese. Etc. regardless it’s a good recipe!

Question: Is it possible the measurements of salt and pepper are flipped in the sauce recipe? I just made this for my family, and all our mouths are now on FIRE! It’s really good aside from that, hahaha.

You’re so welcome! It’s like I told my husband, mistakes happen to us all! We trust you {and your recipes} – you have never let us down before, so I figured I’d better say something. How could I not? Thank you for all your amazing recipes, Robyn!!

Hi Linda,
There was a mistake in the directions. Thank you so much for catching that and letting me know. I have corrected the directions. It should not have said to add vanilla to the dough. Thank you!

My sauce was SO thin!! I followed directions exactly. Maybe I didn’t let my butter, flour, and beef broth mixture thicken enough before adding cream…? I whisked it for at least 5 minutes before adding the cream though.

Hi Andrea,
I’m sorry your sauce turned out thin. It’s important to whisk & brown the flour into the melted butter, then slowly add the beef broth and cook until thickened before adding the other ingredients. I hope this helps. Thanks!

I made these wonderful meatballs mainly to have as left-overs for the weekend. Oh my goodness–DELISH!! I changed up the technique by baking the meatballs at 350 degrees for 25 min, so I could make the gravy at the same time. My hubs arrived home late last night from a business trip and ate a bowl full, and said he was in heaven :0) I also doubled the recipe. So happy to find your blog, and this awesome recipe!!

These are the best meatball recipe I have found in 40 years of cooking. I used panko bread crumbs and soaked them in milk, just enough to dampen the crumbs. The meatballs were seared on the outside and so tender on the inside. The gravy recipe the best. It never occurred to me to at Worcestershire sauce in my gravy. Thank you for sharing!

This is my Grandmothers recipe. She is from Norway. She even uses a cup of Ritz crackers so it’s nice to see that here. I am a chef and this is the only recipe I use for Swedish Meatballs. I rarely use on-line recipes, especially with my experience, however, READERS: This one is a guarantee. If you have more than three mouths to feed, double the recipe and add 2 cups of crushed Ritz. It will get eaten and it pairs well over egg noodles tossed with olive oil. Hats off to Robyn’s Mamma and thanks for the post.

I am so excited to hear that you enjoy and use this recipe, Jamie! It’s always been a favorite recipe of my Mama’s – my whole family loves it! So neat to see that it’s how your Grandmother has always made it too! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know you enjoy it!

This looks like a great recipe which I will definitely make, especially the sauce! (beats Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup).
One thing I do when I make meat balls is, instead of doing them in a pan in oil where I find they fall apart, I put them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven (350 for 20 minutes of so). When we farmed, I’d make a big batch and then I could put the ‘balls’ in bags and freeze them.

Hi Donna,
I hope you enjoy this! It’s been a favorite in our family for so many years!
Baking is a good way to make meatballs sometimes, but in this case I like them browned in the skillet so that the flavors from browning the meatballs adds to the tasty sauce mixture. So good!
Thanks so much! Enjoy them! xo

Omg! i just made these Swedish goodies for my family! I have 6 kids and a hungry hubbie;) I felt as though doubling the recipe wasn’t enough. I served them on ziti and creamed spinach and they were the highlight of the meal! Thanks so much! My kids (Jordan, Allie, Camilla, Dustin, Felix, and Chyna) say that it’s their favorite dinner! Finally, something they will eat. :). The gravy… ooohhhh so good! I recommend in addition to parsley put sage! It makes them so delicate!!! I never had the falling apart problem but the oven sounds ok if you are. My husband is a born and raised swede so if he says they are “just perfect” then i assure you they are! highly recommend! BFN (bye for now),

I’m absolutely tickled to see this comment, Daniella-Basil!
My mother made them all throughout my childhood and we always got so excited when these were for supper! While my born and raised southern family adores these meatballs, I’m certainly happy to see that your husband who is Swedish says they’re perfect to him too!!!
How wonderful that your children all enjoy this – (what awesome names they have!) it’s always a plus when the kids love something!
I can’t wait to share your comment with my Mama. I know she’ll love hearing this!
Thanks so much! xo

Hi Emily,
I am not sure how far in advance you’d like to make them, but if you need to freeze them I’d suggest making meatballs, then freezing the meatballs in an airtight container. When time to make for party, thaw the meatballs, then reheat them in pan, then proceed with rest of recipe instructions to make the sauce.
Hope you enjoy them! Thanks!

Very good! I added 1 T. sour cream and a few dashes of nutmeg to amp up the sauce, because I was using pre-made frozen meatballs and therefore didn’t get the tasty bits from sautéing them. Served over German style noodles.

I’m going to try this for dinner. But I will be adding nutmeg due to my meatballs being frozen. And I will also be adding sour cream and mushrooms. That’s what my grandmother use to do with hers.But there is three of us and we all like a lot of sauce. If i double your recipe will that be way to much sauce and not enough noodles?

Hi Christina,
Yum! I wish I was at your house tonight for supper. That sounds scrumptious! I think doubling it sounds wonderful. I might increase the noodles a bit as well, but not double if you like more sauce than noodles in your Swedish Meatballs. xo

Nom nom! I love these meatballs..I just added half a pack of onion soup mix to the mixture cuz I didn’t have any onions..turned out so good! Also served mine over white jasmine rice instead of noodles, with some fresh green beans..delish!

Oh my gosh! Delicious! I never made them before but wanted to try and your recipe was spot on! My daughter and I ate every bite! Thanks sooo much for sharing! #food #delicious #meatballs #swedishmeatballs #loveandcooking #sharing

Loved it!!! I have made this recipe 6 times now and my whole family absolutely loves it!! The only thing i do different is that I used 5 tbs butter instead of 3 and it makes the sauce a bit thicker. Otherwise amazing!!!

Thank you, just made this, they were so good. Went a bit heavy on the salt and pepper but otherwise, followed right to the letters. For the thin sauce comments, add the broth, and the milk real slow, incrementally while stirring and yall should be fine. Will be making this quite a bit, the house loved it. Thanks again.

Tried this recipe a few months ago and it is now a go-to staple! I absolute love the sauce! I had a hard time with the meatballs falling apart, although the flavor of them is wonderful. I have been using premade meatballs since then, but I will try again with the homemade when I have time to figure out how to keep them together. I do add an extra beef bullion cube for a bit more flavor, but that is just my personal preference. Thank you for the recipe!

Hi Cindy,
The recipe serves 6, so it will depend on the size you make your meatballs. But if you follow the recipe exactly, you can just divide the recipe into those 6 servings to figure your nutritional information per serving. Enjoy! xo